THE NLWYORKER the canoe, is about an inch and a h<11f square in the center and tapers toward the ends. The outwale is a thinnel strip and also runs the length of the canoe. The edge of the bark and the tips of the ribs are pinched hetween the inwale and the outwale. The 'Z-{}ule gessis is a flap of bark that I forlns '1 deck over the bow (or the stern) and extends a short way down the sIdes of the canoe. The headboards are ovate slabs of ce- dar that are wedged vertically into the bow and the stern to contnbute both support and forln. If Henri were to huild a C"U10e here on Gero IsLtnd, he would start by felling cedar, splitting it out, and whittling and forlning various parts. He would cut young bIrch or lnaple for thwarts. Always, he prepares the wooden pieces first. Ribs, planking, steIn pieces, gun wales, and headboards are lnade froln cedar. After carving rib boards in varying lengths, he dips theln in boiling water and then bends them around his knee to an appropriate shape, which, for the center of the ca- noe, is lnuch like the letter C lying on its back. To hold the tension and the shape, he tIes a strip of cedar bark froln tip to tIp, and a rib is lnade. As the ribs progress froln the center of the canoe toward the ends, they lnust be- COlne not only shorter but also lnore sharply bent. SOlne are actually cracked a bit to approach the shape of a V. He racks up several dozen subtly grad- uated ribs, like auto parts awaiting de- livery to an asselnbly line. That is the building bed-a section of ground about twenty feet long, free of rocks and roots. The soil has to be firln enough to hold driven stakes. If the bed is level, the canoe will COlne off it with a slight rocker in the profile of the hottoln. Henri likes it that way, and here on the island he would clear a level bed. No one knows how the canoe's de- sign began, centuries ago. I venture to guess that the structure of the hull was lnodelled on the thoracic structure of vertebrates-of lnen and anÏ1nals, rep- tiles and birds. The skin is bark. The flesh is planking. A cage of bent-cedar ribs gives the craft its skeletal forln. Between a wood-and-canvas canoe and a bark canoe there is an elelnental dif- ference in the order In which the hull is assembled. In the lnore lnodern canoe, the canvas COlnes last. It is stretched across an essentially cOlnpleted and rig- id fralne. The Indian, on the other hand, began the asselnbly with bark. He rolled it right out on the building bed, white side up, and bUIlt the canoe froln there. Lashing the bark to the ,w 89 "'t '1 \ :.;. \ , :. -:....:.... ,'- Lk:. ì ' '. <.. , "$,' ., . 1 f; . I c;:I .' , _'W" of;' . - '., '\ t::::::. .... "' '. '..*= ,,' 'J I j ( \ !f>v . \ From Our Designer's Award Collection Welcome, world traveller! Handsomely nubbed woolen * boucle Impeccably tailored in Spring's own colors. Sizes 6 to 20. About $110. Higher far West. *95% wool/5% nylon At these and other fine stores: Lord & Taylor, New York; Marshall Field & Co., Chicago; Hutzler's, Baltimore; Frances Brewster, Florida; L. S. Ayres & Co., Indianapolis; Nordstrom s, Portland & Seattle; Livingston's, San Francisco; Draper's, So. Calif.; Montaldo's, All Stores. o Weatherbee Coats, Inc ,512 7th Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10018